


Heavy Metal Heart

by Melethril



Series: Ingenious Friendships [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Bruce Banner, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Gen, Nick Fury is also a badass, Protective Bruce Banner, Protective Nick Fury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-05-14 15:54:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5749150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melethril/pseuds/Melethril
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is never wise to ignore your doctor's advice; or not to seek it at all. Just ask Bruce Banner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Because this always irked me about Tony's assessment in IM2.
> 
> Disclaimer: I publish on a fan fiction site… Nothing belongs to me.

**Heavy Metal Heart**

 

With great interest, Bruce watched as Tony’s deft fingers flew across the keyboard. He had never met a person that practically _thought_ in the programming language. To Tony, programming came as easy as breathing (or, given there was an arc reactor in his chest, even more easily than that).

He even studied in that language as the physicist had learned just minutes ago.

Bruce had known pretty much everything about Selvig’s work before the Chitauri invasion, and had caught up quickly on the scientist’s more recent publications and works. However, he knew that Tony’s background on astrophysics had been patchy at best and yet, the engineer had been more than capable of putting everything together in one night; he had even been able to quote Selvig by then end of it. Not even speed-readers (and Bruce was one of them so he would know) were that fast. So, he had asked.

The answer had been fascinating.

Everything that was not electronic, Tony had given to JARVIS for scanning, and then… magic happened. A stream of zeros and ones appeared all around the workshop together with a code-hologram in 3D that was complex to the point of mindboggling.

Then, Tony started to play.

Being his restless, ever-moving self, the billionaire walked about the room and pulled up related codes at will, putting together the information to a picture so complete it was eerie.

“Is it more difficult when you feel sick or tired?” asked Bruce. Tony looked at him with an expression that bordered on exasperation, and the physicist quickly clarified. “I mean, when you feel sick, do you prefer reading over… this?”

Tony looked thoughtful.

“There was only one instance where I had no choice but to read the old-fashioned way because I couldn’t make sense of the code,” replied he. “Even with a fever, I still prefer this method.”

“So, what happened?” Bruce was curious what could have possibly interfered with Tony’s genius.

“I was dying.”

Bruce felt a chill running down his spine. The Other Guy roared.

“Tell me.”

* * *

Director Nick Fury was not often afraid, but when he was suddenly faced with a certain physicist who was practically shaking with suppressed rage while trapped inside of a room just big enough for the Hulk to appear, he felt distinctly uneasy.

Dr. Banner had slammed open the door to his office twenty seconds ago.

_‘How dare you?_ ’

That was all he had uttered so far.

“How may I help you today, Dr. Banner?” he asked nonchalantly pretending to be far calmer than he felt.

“Anxiety, depression, migraines, lack of concentration, dyslexia, insomnia, fatigue, loss of appetite, vertigo, hallucinations… Do you want me to continue?”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“These are all signs and symptoms associated with heavy-metal poisoning,” Bruce hissed.

Why would the doctor… It clicked an instant later. Fury may not be a genius like Banner or Stark, but he was not stupid. Banner was furious, and he only allowed himself to be when he wanted to protect somebody. Tony Stark had the talent of bringing out both Banner’s and his counterpart’s protective instincts.

“I don’t see how this is relevant today, Doctor.”

“Tony’s assessment for the Avengers program took place during a week that should have made it impossible for him to _stand upright_ , not to mention fight a supervillain while saving his own life with the help of clues given by his long-dead father, which were so utterly ridiculous and random I have no idea how he could have recognized them on a good day, while being mortally ill notwithstanding,” the genius scientist declared. His eyes narrowed in anger and there was a green tinge to them that put Fury on edge.

“Dr. Banner, I think you should try to stay calm.”

“No!” was the physicist’s sharp reply. He seemed to have the Hulk under control if only barely. “I’ve got this,” he muttered almost to himself. “I have the right to be angry on Tony’s behalf!”

“I understand completely, Doctor,” replied the Director of SHIELD hoping not to sound too placatory. “However, don’t you see that this conversation is pointless? Yes, we assessed Stark. Yes, we decided not to recommend Stark for the Avengers. Ultimately, he became an Avenger regardless of Agent Romanoff’s evaluation. Discussing this achieves nothing and is irrelevant.”

“Oh, no, this will achieve something, believe me, Director. What I would like to know is why you thought you had the authority to issue a personality profile on Tony without involving a psychiatrist or a medical doctor! Natasha is excellent at what she does, but she is not qualified to take _heavy metal poisoning_ into account. You benched Tony regardless of what it might entail…That Captain Rogers would later see Natasha’s initial assessment and would draw his own conclusions, which in turn would result in heavy prejudice against a potential teammate. Do you honestly believe that Steve would have judged as harshly without that information? Steve is a kind, honest, openhearted person, and never before or after have I seen him criticize anybody as harshly as Tony. You cannot fault the scepter; it only enhanced what was already there. That whole chaos on the Helicarrier? Agent Coulson?” Fury refused to flinch. “All this could have been avoided or at least inhibited if you had sought actual professional advice and taken into consideration the sheer medical implications of heavy metal poisoning _directly into the blood stream_ ,” he emphasized the last part of the sentence. “Tony was so out of it, he’d been forced to manually evaluate his father’s notes! Anybody else wouldn’t have been able to tie his or her own goddamn shoes! And he still got out of it on top with minimal collateral damage. Later, he didn’t say ‘screw you’ when you approached him about Loki even though you performed a medical procedure _without consent_ , which implied you did at least _some_ research before you decided to interfere but not enough to actually consider the psychological and physiological impact of dying from heavy metal poisoning – while being completely aware of it! If that is not a hero, I don’t think I want to know what is.”

With this, Dr. Banner swept around and left Fury’s office, not bothering to look back.

Fury sat down again, his hand slowly moving away from the gun he had started to remove from its holster.

It was almost funny: They said the Hulk was dangerous like a hurricane, but it was Banner who was the driving force of nature. The genius knew all the sore spots of his opponents and apparently did not hesitate to use it in order to gain the upper hand, which was not unlike what his very unique friend excelled at. Also, not unlike Stark, Dr. Banner had a very protective streak when it came to the few people who genuinely cared for him without a hint of fear.

That was good and important to know. Fury appreciated loyalty. It was also good to see that the Avengers team was getting closer.

He turned on the intercom, “Agent Hill, could you please send Dr. Reynolds and Dr. Marquis to my office? I would like to discuss an old case with them. Thank you,” said he.

Then, he resumed reviewing the latest action reports.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I was not quite done with this yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What to say about this… I love protective!Fury and then… there was just this terrifying little idea I had.

“Dr Marquis, Dr. Reynolds,” acknowledges Fury as the two medical doctors entered. “Please, sit.”

He had done some research while he had waited for the two men to move from headquarters to the helicarrier. He did not like what he found.

“Sir?”

“I have a medical question for you. What are the main symptoms of heavy metal poisoning?”

“Short-term or long-term exposure, Director?” asked Marquis.

“Oh, for several months but at rather high doses from what my intel tells me.”

“Where’s the patient, sir?” said Reynolds, already standing. “It can have disastrous consequences for the central nervous system; it may even induce mental illness.”

“Settle down, doctor,” Fury ordered calmly, though his name rang true for his current emotional state. “This patient is no longer your concern.”

“Sir?”

“Let me ask you another question. Would you classify palladium to be a heavy metal?”

Both blanched.

“Director Fury, I…” began Marquis.

“What I want to know from you two imbeciles is why I was not informed that the thing, which kept him alive, was not only killing him but should have turned his IQ to that of a vegetable?”

“Director,” Reynolds found his voice. “Initially, we were concerned that might happen, but we closely watched the patient… at least as well as we could by not actually seeing the patient, and we had no reason to believe that his mind was affected.”

“Huh… I see,” muttered Fury, feeling every bit the very meaning of his name. “Tell me, Dr. Reynolds, if you were drugged to the gills with cocaine and flushed it down with two ounces of scotch, could you still tell me about your research in neurodegenerative diseases?”

“Probably not, sir.” Reynolds clearly hesitated having no idea where this was going. “That’s not even my field.”

“Stark once spontaneously gave a talk about the biochemical interactions between biofilm-producing bacteria and their implication in regular nanotechnology as well as implants. He was so high he was hardly able to walk a straight line before he entered the stage. Nobody noticed a thing,” he added. “Except for the people who had seen him get high. He was nineteen years old and had just become an orphan. Journalists followed him everywhere, yet they were never able to take a single picture of him crying.”

“Sir?”

“What I’m saying is that Stark has a level of genius that we cannot even hope to imitate. He’s immature and an asshole,” and one of the most caring souls he had ever met, “but he could be director of SHIELD while sweet-talking politicians, revolutionizing technology, study medicine and saving the world all at once. On top of that, the man wears more masks in public than the entire cast of Cats. You wouldn’t know his mind is declining right about to the moment he dies. You also sent an agent of SHIELD into a situation she could not properly judge.” He forced himself to unclench his fist. “You severely compromised her mission and the entire Avengers Initiative, and I hope that knowledge will teach you to be more forthcoming with every possible medical consequence in the future. This will have repercussions, gentlemen, now get the hell out of my sight!”

* * *

Drs. Reynolds and Marquis left the office stone-faced, but the sympathetic glances they received betrayed that the reprimand they had received was common knowledge.

Whispers of ‘you don’t mess with Stark around Fury’ and ‘if you ignore the snark, Fury actually likes Stark’ were echoing across the hall. They left the compound together.

Once they were in a secure location, Reynolds grabbed his personal communicator, entered credentials and password.

“We have heard rumors, doctor,” said a slightly distorted, male voice on the other side.

“Mission failed, sir. Fury is aware of our falsified report.”

“The mission achieved another goal than originally anticipated, but it did not completely fail, doctor. Bruce Banner knows about it, Fury knows about it, and that is it. Neither of them will talk to the players that need to hear it; they are both emotionally compromised because of Stark. Banner only thinks of the past and Fury fears that Stark will trust him even less if he talks. Captain America won’t be informed, neither will the Widow… or Stark for that matter. You have done well, doctors.” Dr. Reynolds stood straighter at the praise. “You have achieved to isolate Stark and seed mistrust before friendship could ever form between the Captain and Iron Man; and Stark is not an easy man to befriend. Neither the Widow nor the Captain will ever be able to quench the thought of Stark’s unpredictability – and neither of them deal well with things they cannot predict. The rest will follow them as the Captain leads the Avengers and the Widow is his second in command. Stark cannot be a part of trained warriors, spies and soldiers.”

“Banner…”

“Is even more of recluse than Stark. He will happily conspire with Stark in the lab, but he does not trust his temper to speak up. He will abandon Stark the second he fears that the Hulk may emerge or something goes wrong.”

“Why not just kill Stark, sir? Why this elaborate game of destabilization?” He had never asked this question, but now he could not help it.

“Doctor, many people have tried to kill Stark in the past, long before he was Iron Man. None succeeded. People tend to die in their attempts. No, killing him is not an option. Break him? We have been working on that since 1991. What we must do now, is chip away the walls, bit by bit, until Stark no longer trusts himself with an electronic toothbrush, not to mention any kind of higher technology.”

“Such a brilliant mind, sir,” began Marquis. “Have you not tried to recruit him?”

“Of course we have, for many years, when he was not even a legal adult. Even then, we came to the conclusion that he is not a sympathizer of our cause. He does not believe in a new world order, gentlemen. He thinks people are ‘fine just they way they are even if they make stupid decisions… or are stupid altogether.’”

“Do you need us for the next phase, sir?”

“No, we have picked up a wonderful, little flower. We planted the seed and now we are reaping it. She will take care of things now. All pieces have fallen into place. Stark will no longer be a threat in the near future, regardless of whether our immediate plan will work or not. Your mission has been accomplished. Hail Hydra!”

“Hail Hydra!”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I love reviews :-)


End file.
